“No, like I told you before, I’m not really an outdoorsy kinda girl.”
“We’ll have to go at least once this summer,” he says, and hope fills my chest, because if he’s talking about us spending time together in the future, that might mean that he sees in me what I see in him. “One thing I’ve learned is no one is ever happy to step outside their comfort zone, but they do tend to really fucking enjoy it after they’ve stepped over that line.” He stands with his coffee before I can respond and asks, “Are you finished in here?”
“Yeah.” I glance at the computer and the dozens of emails we got over the weekend. “Or for now I am.”
“Then let’s go out front and wait for everyone.”
I push back my chair, grab the coffee he brought me, and walk out of the office ahead of him. When we get to the main room in the lodge, I see that Janet has been hard at work this morning. Not only is there fresh coffee and tea in large heated metal pots, but there’s also an assortment of muffins, danishes, and fresh fruit, along with meats and cheeses, set up on a long table, with plates, cups, silverware, and napkins on the end.
“Your mom needs a raise.”
“Believe me, she doesn’t,” Blake says, and I eye him questioningly. “Maverick, Tanner, and I offered her over four times what she was making at her last job, and she does half the work with little to no stress.”
“She’s worth it.”
“You’re right; she is, and if she asked for more, we’d give it to her.” He places his hand against my lower back and urges me down the hall toward the front door. When we step outside onto the porch, I spot Maverick at the back of his Jeep, pulling out a backpack that looks to be about as big as I am. Then I turn when I hear people shouting.
“Oh my goodness,” I whisper, hearing Blake curse behind me as the bus drives into the lot with all the windows down and people hanging out, with white streamers and Silly String shooting out like confetti and covering the ground. “Are they drunk?”
“I fucking hope not,” Maverick grumbles, coming up the steps to where we’re standing.
“If they are, we are not taking them out today,” Blake says, and I nod my agreement. I don’t even want to imagine the kind of disaster that would ensue from taking a whole group of drunk people on a hike up a mountain on a hot day like today.
When the door to the bus opens, I blink as a blonde in a white tank proclaiming she’s the Bride to Be, a pair of white leggings, a white fluffy tulle skirt, and sneakers gets off the bus. She’s followed by a much older gentleman wearing a T-shirt that looks like a tux, and the rest of their group emerges after them. All the men and women are dressed much the same as the leading couple. When the doors start to close, a girl younger than everyone else, dressed in black with dark hair, fights them open, then stumbles off the bottom step, the weight of her backpack almost toppling her over.
“What the fuck.” Maverick starts to step forward but seems to stop himself when she turns to say something to the driver, who’s still on the bus. She then walks off to stand alone away from everyone, looking like she would rather be anywhere else.
“Hi.” The blonde wearing the Bride tank top approaches us while waving, the man at her side looking happy but nowhere near as thrilled as she does. Having chatted with them over email and on the phone a few times, I know the older gentleman must be Oliver, and his fiancée is Lauren.
“Please tell me that we charged them double for this,” Maverick says under his breath, and I can’t help but smile.
“We’re so happy to be back here,” Lauren says as she heads right for Maverick, wrapping her arms around him in a hug that obviously makes him uncomfortable. When she does the same with Blake, I almost want to laugh at the look on his face. “We saw that Cybil and Tanner had their baby. You can’t imagine how happy we are for both of them,” she says when she lets Blake go; then she looks at me. “She and I follow each other on social media.”
“Awesome.” I smile, and she leans into me.
“Just imagine—she and I both got our happily ever afters, after a couples retreat right here.” She points at the ground.
“Imagine that,” I agree, and she holds her hand out toward me, the huge rock on her finger glittering in the early-morning sun.
“Sorry, my manners are failing me this morning. I’m Lauren, and this handsome guy here is my soon-to-be husband, Oliver.”